Voluntary Association Involvement and Political Participation in South Korea

Abstract

While studies suggest that voluntary association involvement leads to more political participation in the U.S. and European countries, the relationship remains debatable in new democracies. Using the Current Social Integration Survey from 2015 to 2018 in South Korea, this study examines the relationship between voluntary association engagement and participation in political activities based on the social capital theory and explores whether the results vary by the types of voluntary associations and multiple memberships in the associations. The results suggest that memberships in voluntary associations are positively associated with voting and engagement in political activities. Additionally, only memberships in certain types of associations are related to voting and engagement in political activities.

Social workers’ voluntary political participation: Testing a civic engagement model

“…However, social workers in South Korea are still less likely than those in other European and north American countries to participate in political activities, and the types of their participation are somewhat simple and passive, such as voting (Lee et al, 2015). Besides, unlike the major assumption of the CVM, the effect of involvement in voluntary associations is mixed in Korean contexts (No et al, 2021). Therefore, additional research is necessary to better understand how the CVM provides similar or different results according to national characteristics and cultural contexts.…”